Jack of Clubs  

Jay Garner
President, SY Coleman
Ex-Viceroy of Iraq

This former Air Force general worked for Israel designing Arrow missiles. His company was recently bought by L-3 Communications (also owns MPRI). Demoted by the White House, now Paul Bremer, CEO of Marsh Crisis Consulting, is in charge of bleeding Iraq.

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War contracts over the last three years: $2.5 billion. Products: Satellite, avionics, Patriot and Arrow missile defense systems Garner has worked for the Israeli government to build Arrow missiles, while signing statements praising the Tel-Aviv government for its "restraint" in dealing with the Palestinians.

To give you a flavor of Garner's style, here's what he wrote in Army magazine: "While the idea that lasers could be used effectively to conduct lethal engagements was promoted vigorously during the heyday of President Reagan's Star Wars program in the 1980s, the reality of using high-energy lasers in killing systems has finally come of age." He told the New York Times that "If President Bush had been president we would have won" the Vietnam War.

Garner, who owns a million-dollar home in Orlando, Florida, made money by doing business with his former military command. DESE Research is investigating the conduct of Garner and SY Coleman related to unfair business practices. "Jay's very aggressive and did what he could to pull contracts, even if that meant pulling strings," a former high-ranking industry executive told the Nation Magazine.

A friend of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Garner was named president of SY Technology (now called SY Coleman) in 1997 - despite having almost no experience in business. Biff Baker, a former lieutenant colonel at Army Space Command, accused SY Coleman of having received $100 million in contracts solely because of Garner's Pentagon connections. SY sued Baker for defamation and the lawsuit was settled out of court in January, 2003.

Garner was Reagan's top man on Star Wars and, after the 1991 Gulf War, told Congress that the Patriot missile defense system was a success - even though it knocked down just one out of 88 Scud missiles the Iraqis launched at Israel and Saudi Arabia, according to the General Accounting Office. According to acclaimed MIT professor and missile expert Theodore A. Postol, "He was arrogant and very discourteous. He was part of a group of senior officers who were lying about Patriot's performance."

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